Wheeler National Monument

It seems long ago in a far off place that the wilderness adventures of my life occurred. I was in my early 20's, and my spouse was into "jeeping". We lived in Colorado, and we took on some challenging adventures.

Wheeler was one such adventure. It was part of a vacation that we took in late July or early August of 1977 where we toured parts of Colorado. Our newborn son was only a few weeks old, and to keep him warm during our camping-out, we made him a bed in a banana box.

We started by heading to my favorite place in Colorado- The Great Sand Dunes - and camping there. After that our destination was Wheeler, and we made our way to the dirt road that is somewhere near Creede, Colorado. In our 1976? Ford Bronco, we navigated the road and then rugged trail to take us to the fence line that boarders this "abandoned" monument/wilderness area. We set up camp, pitched our tent, and prepared to spend a couple days exploring at 11,000 feet. It was an interesting adventure of seeing a place that very few people have ever seen.

After we conquered the Wheeler 4x4 trail, we were up for more, and so I remember looking at the map and finding a way to go across country via dirt roads and trails to Silverton, CO. From there we went looking for the infamous unnegotiable trail near Teluride, CO that was made famous in a CW McCall song...gosh, what is the name of that trail. At this moment it escapes me. We actually took a look at it from the top of the mountain, and then again at the bottom of the mountain outside of Telluride. (Telluride sits in a box canyon and this trail climbs the blocking mountainside). We drove up the trail maybe 2 switchbacks and found that they were too tight for the Bronco, and on up we could see that the trail was basically too treacherous to even consider.

Our journey that 1977 summer included Colorado National Monument, and then from there we headed back, taking in other trails as we made our way back to the Front Range and our home on the prairie in Simla, CO.

Across the years I'd forgotten the name of Wheeler. I have a few old pictures in an album of our campsite, the trail, and the eroded spires. Looking at these today, I realize that the geography is very much like the Bad Lands in South Dakota - except a mini version sitting on the side of a mountain at a high altitude.

The adventures of youth. I'm so glad we went.